Features of Poverty in India: Following are the main features of poverty in India.
(i) Declining Trend: The proportion of people below poverty line in India had variations. Poverty ratio increased during the decade of the 1970s. It decreased sharply during the decade of the 1980s. During the decade of 1990s, there was first a rise following the period of economic reforms and then a fall in the incidence of poverty. Since 1993-94, the total number of the poor shows a declining trend.
(ii) Inter-State Variations: Poverty is not equally distributed through the country. A recent study shows that more than 90 per cent of India’s rural poor live in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Further, 50 per cent of India’s rural poor live in three states (namely, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh). As against this, the poverty ratio in the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat, Kerala, Punjab and Haryana is quite low.
(iii) Nature of Poverty: Poverty is visible both in our rural and urban areas. The rural poor consist of people of low castes and tribal groups. The major group of the poor include landless agricultural labourers, small and marginal farmers, rural artisans, etc. In the urban sector, the poor include largely unemployed, underemployed or persons employed in low productivity occupations such as rickshaw pullers, cobblers, and street vendors.
